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"Maya Angelou died." These three words flashed across the screen on my phone and the news etched a notch of pain upon my heart. I did not speak to anyone about the news. I went about my day in May as usual, except that my heart hurt with the dull ache that lingers in the shadow of sadness. My heart ached because the last of the ink had dried, the pen laid down, the hand stilled, and the words stopped. Another giant of our generation, laid to rest. I started reading Dr. Angelou's works at the cusp of adulthood. In that space, where I stood akimbo, with one foot in childhood and the other in womanhood, her words were part of the bridge that ushered me into the reality of adult...

Related "Maya Angelou" Articles

"Maya Angelou died." These three words flashed across the screen on my phone and the news etched a notch of pain upon my heart. I did not speak to anyone about the news. I went about my day in May as usual, except that my heart hurt with the...

The life and works of Maya Angelou will be celebrated Thursday, 5-7 p.m., at the College of William and Mary's Tucker Hall Theater. The presentation includes short readings of Angelou's works by students and faculty, as well as a performance by the Leah...

A poet once told me that to enjoy poetry, you must read it aloud to appreciate the nuances of the word choices and hear the rhythms that bring the stories to life.
If that's true, Hampton Roads poetry fans can count themselves among the fortunate....

A lecture by author Maya Angelou scheduled for May 2 at Chrysler Hall has been postponed.
According to a news release, Angelou’s health is the cause of the delay. Angelou turned 85 in early April.
The talk was to coincide with the Norfolk Botanical...

Celebrated poet and author Nikki Giovanni helps to expand and enrich young minds in Blacksburg, where she's a professor of English at Virginia Tech. Still, she's not exactly cloistered in her mountain-top, ivory tower. She gets around.Giovanni, who grew...

Several weeks ago, I wrote about seeing award-winning poet Nikki Giovanni speak at TNCC. During that talk, Giovanni told us she was looking forward to an upcoming event at Virginia Tech to honor her friend, celebrated author Toni Morrison. The event,...

Please note that the most frequently challenged authors may not appear in the list of most frequently challenged books. For example, if every one of Judy Blume’s books was challenged–but only once–not one of her books would make the top 10 list, but she...

The U.S. Postal Service will release a "forever" stamp honoring writer Maya Angelou, the agency announced Monday. Angelou, best known for her memoir "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," died last year at age 86.
In...

The U.S. Postal Service says it will honor poet and author Maya Angelou with a Forever Stamp. A statement from the postal service says it will preview the stamp and provide details on the date and location of the first-day-of-issuance ceremony at a...

From the very first sentence, Oprah Winfrey loved what became her latest book club pick. "I thought, 'Wow, this is so good I have to wait until I actually have the time to absorb the language,'" said Winfrey, during a recent telephone...

Poet, memoirist and performer Maya Angelou has died at age 86, Wake Forest University announced Wednesday. The multi-talented artist was also a celebrated civil rights advocate and pioneer.
As a poet, Angelou was best known for reading at President...

You want to think that when a person has lived a robust life, her death won't sting as much. But on Wednesday when I learned of the great poet Maya Angelou’s passing, that life well-lived didn't make me feel any less heartbroken.
One of my first calls...

Many Americans came to know author Maya Angelou as they know their closest friends and loved ones. She revealed her heart and soul in seven best-selling memoirs that documented her rise from poverty and violence to literary greatness.
Her first...

Maya Angelou, who died Wednesday at age 86, is best known for being an accomplished author, civil-rights advocate and poet, but she had many different lives -- as a streetcar conductor, performer, dancer.
To learn more about her, step inside museums from...

"ARRIVE at a party in a fringed flapper dress or a hoop skirt, and you're in costume. Come in the style worn by Katharine Hepburn or Barbara Stanwyck in the 1930s -- a dress of woven silk gauze and chiffon that clings to the figure and plunges in the...

She bought her clothes for their colors in secondhand shops — "beautiful reds and oranges, and greens and pinks, and teals and turquoise" — and wore them in happy mismatch. She danced feathers and a few sequins to Alvin Ailey's leopard print...

King & Queen native Kelvin Braxton, of Braxton Photography, has developed an impressive resume since he started professional photography over a decade ago.
Braxton's subjects include some of the most influential people in the world. He has...

Kenan Thompson is fed up with having to wear a dress on "Saturday Night Live."
A 10-year veteran of NBC's sketch comedy show, Thompson has donned drag to play characters such as Maya Angelou, Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey. And it's not just...